Seasonal Mantel Decor (super easy ideas)

Looking for super easy ideas for seasonal mantel decor? Here are 25+ ways how I have decorated my mantel shelf in every season of the year. All of these ideas are easy and great examples of how you can quickly change your seasonal decorations and give your mantel a quick refresh.

This is a post about my mantel that isn’t a mantel at all. It is my pretend-mantel, my I wish-you-were-a-mantel-mantel, it is the shelf that I decorate as a mantel.

I was going through some images of my blogging years. And this particular corner in my living room kept coming up again and again. And even more and more as time went by.

I thought it was so funny to see all those transformations, the way those reflected my mood and the way they represented my style and how that has changed and how it has stayed the same.

I thought you might enjoy this journey along memory lane and my mantel style evolution too.

So here are:

(More than) 25 Ways to Decorate your Mantel for Every Season

I’ll show you how my mantel decorating has evolved through the years. Quite some time ago already I started this decorating blog. I learned both decorating and blogging by doing it.

Most of those very old posts have been long since deleted from my blog. They just weren’t up to par and serving nobody. I am revisiting them here anyway, because they show my decorating journey and how my style and skills have evolved.

Please don’t judge my early decorations too harshly. I was still a novice back then. I am showing you those early examples of my seasonal decor and all the quick updates I used to make because I want to give you the confidence to just do it too. Don’t be discouraged by all the perfect mantels you see on social media. There is beauty in even the simplest and easiest mantel decorations. Come see how I learned seasonal decorating by doing it, and see me critique my past self.

Here  is the first time my “mantel” appeared on my blog.

A bit bare, composition-wise not very exciting. But with a wreath and poor man’s silver and that blasted radiator knob.

If I remember correctly those roses were for celebrating painting all the walls in our living room freshly white. You can’t tell from this picture though, they look pink. Photography skills weren’t up to par either.

Moving on….

That pink roses mantel was from May, this is October that same year. No idea how my mantel looked in the meantime, but apparently it wasn’t photography nor blog-worthy. Those apothecary jars were very much blogging-influenced. I saw them so much on blogs in those days that I searched high and low for my own jars. I haven’t used them in ages anymore. Funny that.

Ok I am betting the next one is Christmas…

Hmm, I found one small picture of a mini mantel decoration that Christmas season. Can’t imagine that now. The mantel doesn’t appear again until…

…summer.

This is the first summer mantel I posted on my blog. Funny I didn’t even take a complete frontal view picture then, I could only find these detailed shots. Looks like I am still working the glass jars and I  seem to remember being very happy this time around that I had found a cloche too. Again heavily influenced by many blogs. And look: that little lamp had a shade change for summer too.

Related Reading: 72 Ideas for Stunning Summer Mantel Decor

Ok, where will we end up next…..

Back into Fall and there is only 1 image of my mantel to be found!

Still working those jars. But at least I have started to try and cover-up that radiator knob…

Ha, here is my first official Christmas mantel posted on the blog. Working the glass, baby, working that glass. I still like these holiday decorations in red and white though. And I remember that it was very sparkly and festive and that the whole time this was up there wasn’t an evening without the candles being lit.

I think this one might have started the whole mantel decorating thing. Because that shelf (which is obviously a radiator cover) starts to become a frequent guest here.

See this one was right after Christmas in January. When I craved white and simplicity. Photography skills are clearly improving too.

NEXT!!

Only one month later:

I remember this one!

I did a full “how I decorate and style my mantel post” back then. Funny come to think of it, since my mantel decorating skills were still very much developing. But I think I am beginning to distinguish a certain Songbird style here already. The candles, the flowers, a theme, an underlying concept if you will. It is definitely not so haphazard anymore and less overtly influenced by other bloggers (or so I’d like to think anyway).

I guess I was really into it from then:

This is March and the first (of many) glamour appearances of my twig wreath on the blog. And see that clever disguise of the knob! Hé, and I crafted for this one too. Not only the twig wreath is homemade so is that plaster doily bowl.

In May I did this hot pink mantel for a mantel party. Quite festive, don’t you think.

This is a colorful phase because the next one also has a colorful flower / white decorations contrast going on.

Summer brings us right back to Fall again. And the twig wreath again.

This was quite bare. I think this was when my sister from New Zealand was visiting and I had other things on my mind than decorating.

If this fall mantel gets you in the mood for some fall decorating, check out my hand-picked collection of fabulous fall mantels that I love.

Made up for that later in the year though. When Christmas came rolling around.

That was the year of natural, simple yet sparkly Christmas. My mantel set the tone for the decorations that year as it did most years after. And although they were simple, it was still a full house of Christmas decorations.

So no wonder come January I was craving, white and silence and empty space again…

But I was on a roll, mantel wise. There were three mantel variations that month. All featuring my feather wreath.

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The next one is definitely not my best mantel ever…..

But I do still dig the layered mirrors. And aren’t those cupcake candle sticks cute? This was their first version. They got glammed up later unit proper plaster cupcake candle holders. Long gone now. Ah memories.

This next mantel I actually forgot all about…

An intermezzo white flower mantel. Leading up to my big summer mantel project that year.

My pallet wood mantel underwent many changes and reappeared several times. This summer mantel version was my favorite though. You can see all the variations of this pallet wood mantel in this post. What is your favorite version?

It worked its magic until fall. And yes this time there is no twig wreath insight on my Fall mantel.

This was the one where I tried to create a bit more masculine mantel theme. A bit less flowery and feminine. I think I did quite good.

Of course, that meant I had built up some credits here at home and could go full out on the Christmas mantel again.

Which in turn led to a white January mantel (are you picking up a theme here…

Which turned into my Spring mantel by adding feathers and flowers.

And then April and May were Mantel transformation months. Four different mantels from the same basic design:

And then the circle is round and we end up with another Summer Beach Mantel.

Of course after summer comes fall. I am truly into the themed mantels now.

This fall mantel in non-traditional colors was quite a thing. I love the botanical feel this one has.

Time for another Christmas mantel.

This Christmas mantel was inspired by the French Scandinavian look. It is a bit primitive and rustic. But the string lights on that big Christmas star still make this perfectly festive decor.

I think I was getting a lot more critical about what I posted on my blog by then. There aren’t many haphazardly put together in-between mantels anymore. I only posted real seasonal mantel ideas by then. So after Christmas that meant I went straight into another Spring mantel idea.

By this time I also had found a permanent solution for that blasted radiator knob. I hollowed out a book and placed it right over that bane in my existence. Worked like a charm.

I think this is one of my favorite mantels still. It was quirky, unexpected, and perfectly white.

I think I am missing some mantels here because the next one I found is a fall mantel.

Isn’t it funny how much contrast there is between my spring and my fall mantel? The first one is almost colorless, and the fall mantel is full of contrast featuring black birdcages, vintage books, and bright green flowers. Still they also both have a definite feminine and soft romantic look.

Christmas time again!

This paper houses Christmas mantel must be one of the most monochrome mantels I have ever done. It was white on white and pretty bare. It was also very bright with all the string lights. Not sure if I ever would go this colorless again.

My favorite reincarnations of my twig wreath was featured on this winter mantel.

I do think I was getting a bit tired of my own mantel variations by now.

The next one went up in spring and stayed up (with variations) well into summer.

This layered photo frame mantel was a bit different. A bit more chaos and less organized. But it was so easy to change up and let it slide through the seasons. Simply changing out the pictures gave it a whole new look.

I must have skipped a fall mantel that year.

Because the next one is the last Christmas mantel I did.

That year my Christmas decor was all about stars. And of course, my mantel was the star of all the star-studded Christmas decorations. Both the paper star garland and the wood block houses were handmade.

The last mantel I ever did in this house was a colorful fall mantel.

Farmhouse decorating had become all the rage, and I did my own version of a farmhouse fall mantel.

Well quite a journey of seasonal mantel decor, don’t you think? It is funny to look back on my own transformation as a blogger and decorator. And although my style has clearly evolved through the years, and still is. I can also still enjoy the decorations I did in my early days.

So what do you think? Do you recognize it all as Songbird? Are all those mantels ME? Or is there one that you think is more or less a true representation of my style?

Do you have a favorite?

Let me know in the comments or let’s talk about it somewhere on the internet. 

In all things mantel and blog…